DOGGED STRUGGLE: Daniel Oblath and McLovin’ in Battery Park, where they were caught off leash.J.C. Rice

A Manhattan man scored an unwitting victory for downtown dog owners last year when he successfully battled a ticket for walking his pooch without a leash in Battery Park and got an official ruling declaring the practice OK.

But the city, which didn’t even bother to show up last September to defend the ticket, took exception and has since been fighting to reinstate the $100 violation.

The case is part of an ongoing dogfight between City Hall and downtown residents who say they’ve been using Battery Park’s main lawn as an off-leash area for years.

Battery Park pooches and their owners have been repeatedly ticketed despite the protests of residents who say their presence helped rescue the park from neglect and crime. Dogs are allowed off leash in other large parks before 9 a.m.

Daniel Oblath, 29, was giving his German shepherd mix, McLovin’, an early-morning run in the park in April 2012 when a city Parks officer slapped him with a ticket.

Oblath and his lawyer showed up at an 8 a.m. Environmental Control Board hearing in September 2012, only to learn city lawyers weren’t there.The pair waited, but the city never showed, they charge.

Now Oblath has gone to Manhattan Supreme Court in a bid to muzzle the off-leash ticket once and for all.

The city claims that it wasn’t required to show up at the September hearing and that there’s never been any change in the rules forbidding off-leash dogs in Battery Park.